Want To Replicate Our Net Worth Results?

In the last 6 years, I have taken my (now our) net worth from $18k to nearly $500k. I am pretty satisfied with the results - we are making good progress on our financial freedom goals. I think there a couple things I/we have done that contributed significantly to our progress.

We didn't do any radical. We worked hard to increase our income. We spent significantly less than we earned. We also invested our savings. Sounds easy enough right?

Here is a more granular account of some of the things we have done to reach this point:

I set financial goals (hint: It's the title of this blog)
I measure our progress with monthly net worth reports
I started my career in a higher-starting salary field - Engineering
I lived like a college student for as long as possible
My car is a means of transportation -- I still drive the used car I bought in college
I focused on career growth and acceptedgrowth opportunities at work and look for opportunities like my international assignment
I took advantage of 0% Balance Transfer arbitrage
I max out my retirement contributions
I married someone who spends within her means
We only use insurance to cover catastophic events, and self insure as much as possible.

Ofcourse we are still early on our journey to financial freedom and we might still be taking some wrong turns. Stick around to find out how soon we make it.

Related in Financial Goals:

Financial Freedom Plan - 2015 Update (Apr 30, 2015) I finally sat down to get an updated view of our progress towards our financial freedom plan that I laid out a few years go in terms of asset allocation. Some notes: Our asset allocation to fixed income (interest) will...

Financial Freedom Plan (Aug 25, 2013) Almost two years ago I laid out a plan for the net asset allocation I thought we needed for our financial freedom plan. It was a rough guide for asset allocation that I believe could generate enough income to cover...

2012 Passive Income: Dividends (Jan 27, 2013) Here is a summary of our 2012 dividend income. All this income comes from our taxable stock portfolio that is included in our monthly investment review. All retirement investment holdings are excluded from this dividend income summary. This passive income...

Comments (5)

Hey 2 Million,

Congrats on the 500k net worth, some people never actually make it that far.

Best,

James

Posted by James | May 2, 2008 11:48 PM

Hi 2 Million,

I am new to site. I do have a question in regards to the 0% balance transfer. It seems that you have had to apply for a lot of cards. Wouldn't having so many cards hurt your credit report? Most of those cards would be less than 1-2 years old.

Thanks,
Allen

Posted by Allen | May 4, 2008 11:44 PM

Well depends on how much you try to take advantage of 0% balance transfers. You'll typically need a new card for each balance transfer you take advantage of. If you assume each balance transfer will be for a 12month duration and you have one BT at a time, you would only apply for 10 new cards over the course of a decade. It will likely impact your credit score to a certain degree, but based on my experience you can do it without a long term impact.

Posted by 2million | May 5, 2008 9:23 AM

Hi 2 Million,

Thanks for your answer. I might give it a try. I do have a question though. With the current interest rate dropping like a rock, is it still a good deal to use the 0% BT?

Thanks,
Allen

Posted by Allen | May 5, 2008 11:19 AM

2 Million,

Congratulations on your impressive journey. If only more people followed your hard work and intelligent money prudence we'd have a much wealthier population. You've done extremely well for yourself and most importantly, you are on track to your goals.

Kudos to you sir.

Dr. HB

Posted by Dr. Housing Bubble | May 9, 2008 8:51 PM